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Windward Islands sealed their fourth straight win in the Caribbean T20, edging past Guyana in a closely-fought, rain-affected game at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. Choosing to field, Guyana, relying on important contributions from opener Sewnarine Chattergoon (27) and captain Christopher Barnwell (32) and a late surge from Veerasammy Permaul, reached 140 for 8 in 20 overs. Darren Sammy picked up 3 for 11, excellent figures in a four-over spell. All of his wickets came in one over.Rain intervened after Windwards had reached 5 without loss in the chase, and the target was revised to 119 in 16 overs and Windwards just about managed that. Opener Johnson Charles led the way with 65, off 43 balls, striking three fours and three sixes. Charles was the third wicket to fall with the score on 88, and Windwards needed 31 off 21 balls at the time.Though Devendra Bishoo bowled economically, picking three for 15 in four overs, Devon Smith saw Windwards through, making an unbeaten 25 off 19 balls with two fours and a six. In the final over, at the fall of Shane Shillingford’s wicket, Windwards needed 3 off 3 balls and the win was sealed off the last ball of the match. Windwards are among the two decided semi-finalists.In another rain-affected match at the same venue, Trinidad and Tobago brushed aside Canada, winning by eight wickets and sealing their place in the semi-finals. Canada, after opting to bat, began in encouraging fashion, their openers Hiral Patel and Ruvindu Gunasekera adding 43 for the first wicket. But the innings fell apart after that, nine wickets falling for 56 runs. No one else, apart from the extras column, reached double-figures and Canada were kept to 99 for 9. Ravi Rampaul was the wrecker-in-chief, taking 4 for 26, and Dwayne Bravo helped him out with 3 for 20 in four overs.T&T lost Lendl Simmons early and Adrian Barath was given out obstructing the field upon deviating the wicketkeeper’s throw. Darren Bravo and Denesh Ramdin, however, ensured there were no further hiccups. Rain halted play in the 12th over and the target was revised to 91 in 18 overs. Darren Bravo top-scored with an unbeaten 42 off 41 balls and Ramdin chipped in with 30 off 27 in a 59-run stand. The win was achieved in the 16th over.

Vernon Philander, the South African fast bowler, has been awarded a national contract in recognition of his strong start to his Test career this summer. In four home Tests, Philander has taken 30 wickets, with four five-wicket hauls, including a match-best of 10 for 102 against Sri Lanka at Centurion.His 5 for 15 on debut was mainly responsible for Australia being bundled out for 47 at Newlands.”Vernon has been an outstanding asset for the Proteas’ squad this summer and his successes have been well documented,” said Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola.”The awarding of a contract is well deserved and also gives the team management the tools to manage his workload correctly as the Proteas embark on a very busy international year that includes away tours to New Zealand, England and Australia as well as the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.”At the end of a meeting of CSA’s board of directors, it was decided that South Africa will play five Twenty20 internationals in Zimbabwe in June before their tour of England. The team would have played 11 Twenty20 internationals in the build-up to the ICC World Twenty20, including three each in New Zealand and England.The board accepted a recommendation from Majola to have a workshop to review the structure of the domestic professional competitions.

The race for World Cup places in 2014-15 will resume in February when the qualifying tournament gets back underway with Ireland, who currently lead the table with four wins from four, taking on Kenya in Mombasa.Scotland, who are also on eight points alongside Ireland, resume their campaign against UAE in March after ICC confirmed the latest set of Intercontinental one-day and Cup matches.The one-day matches, which form the qualifying tournament for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, run alongside the four-day Intercontinental Cup fixtures. There are four places available alongside the ten Full Members at the next World Cup following the u-turn from ICC after the decision had initially been taken to shrink the event down to ten nations.Currently the third and fourth qualifying spots are held by UAE and Netherlands with Afghanistan also on four points. Afghanistan and Netherlands go head-to-head at the end of March in Sharjah while Namibia and Canada, who are both yet to secure a victory, will aim to kick-start their chances in early April.Ireland are also in top spot in the Intercontinental Cup table, 17 points ahead of UAE, although all the teams have only played two matches so far.The other crucial cricket for Associate and Affiliate members early next year is the World Twenty20 qualifiers where two places are up for grabs at the full tournament in Sri Lanka next September.Full four-day fixtures
Full one-day fixtures

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rangana Herath dismissed Azhar Ali but couldn’t make any more breakthroughs•AFP

Pakistan extended their impressive run in Test cricket since the spot-fixing scandal deprived them of three first-choice players, securing a series win over Sri Lanka on a rare rain-hit day in Sharjah. Fittingly, Misbah-ul Haq, the man who took over as captain and provided a backbone to a team that was in disarray last year, remained unbeaten to ensure there were no implosions and confirm the draw.The result extends Sri Lanka’s winless streak to 14 Tests, again highlighting their struggle to come to terms with the loss of Muttiah Muralitharan. They betrayed a lack of killer instinct by batting on the final day of this must-win Test, despite a three-hour rain delay. They were 237 ahead by stumps on the fourth day, a sufficiently large lead in a match where the run-rate had been around two-and-a-half over the first four days, but they weren’t confident enough to declare at the start of play when 67.2 overs remained. Instead of going all out for a victory, they inexplicably batted out four overs before calling an end to their innings.Pakistan needed a high-octane start if they were to make a serious tilt at the target of 255 in 61 overs. Their openers began briskly, with Mohammad Hafeez slashing a couple of fours past point early on. Pakistan were 20 for 0 midway through the fifth over, but their momentum was taken away by a direct hit from substitute Lahiru Thirimanne at midwicket, which caught Hafeez short.Taufeeq Umar and the usually watchful Azhar Ali decided to shut shop, and Pakistan focused on playing out the overs for a draw. With the Sri Lanka spinners getting some turn, Pakistan scratched out six runs in an 11-over spell. Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv kept the batsmen on a leash, and Sri Lanka employed a clutch of close-in fielders as they hunted for quick wickets.Sri Lanka’s strikes came from contrasting deliveries. A ripper from Herath accounted for Azhar, trapped lbw after the ball drifted in before curling sharply away, while Younis Khan was dismissed by a pedestrian length delivery that he punched to the mid-on fielder.Still, Taufeeq firmly resisted and Misbah showed off his defensive mastery once again to drain Sri Lanka’s hopes. Their 15-over blockade nearly put the match to bed, but Sri Lanka perked up when Taufeeq irresponsibly slapped a short Randiv ball to Kumar Sangakkara at point. The spinners persevered and should have had another breakthrough when Asad Shafiq nicked to the keeper but the umpire failed to spot it.It was comfortable for Pakistan in the end, with Shafiq and Misbah stonewalling 16 overs in the fading light. Misbah even shared a light-hearted moment with Sangakkara as the match wound down, jokingly imitating a left-hand batsman. With Pakistan winning their first series over a better-ranked team since they beat India at home in 2005-06, Misbah could well afford to smile.

Zaka Ashraf, a top banker and businessman, is understood to have been picked as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board succeeding Ijaz Butt, though a formal announcement to that effect is awaited. Ashraf is president of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and a close confidant of Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, who as Patron of the board will make the formal appointment.The news has not been officially confirmed by the PCB and in fact senior officials insisted that no decision had been taken; Butt, who is on an extension of tenure, himself told reporters he was not aware of any notification and would be at his office on Wednesday morning. However, Ashraf’s name was all over the Pakistani media, including, significantly, the government-run PTV channel.Ashraf himself appeared on private TV channels and spoke at length about his plans for the PCB. His priority, he said, was to improve Pakistan cricket’s image abroad after a series of high-profile scandals. “I will work day and night to live up to President Zardari’s confidence. My top priority will be to improve Pakistan’s cricket image and stop bookies and match-fixers.”He also said he would try to improve relations with other cricket boards – including India, with whom sporting and diplomatic ties have stalled after a terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008. “People in both Pakistan and India love cricket so I will try to resume ties,” he was quoted as saying.Ashraf’s three-year term as president of ZTBL ended on September 3, 2011, and he is expected not to carry on in the position once he takes over his duties as PCB chairman. ZTBL is one of Pakistan’s top public-sector banks and is also represented by a team in Division One of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the domestic first-class competition. The team features several players who have played for Pakistan, including Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Hameed, Imran Nazir and Zulqarnain Haider.Apart from being president of ZTBL, Ashraf is co-chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Punjab zone. He reportedly studied with Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari in college and stayed in the same hostel.Butt, whose three-year tenure ended on October 8, had attended the ICC executive board meeting in Dubai on October 10 with an extension of his tenure under consideration. His term was plagued with controversies, including the armed attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore that resulted in Pakistan being denied the chance to co-host the 2011 World Cup, the spot-fixing scandal (and the problems with the ECB in its aftermath when Butt made controversial accusations against the England team), Zulqarnain Haider’s fleeing to the UK mid-way through a tour after receiving threats from bookies and, most recently, a much-publicised clash with Shahid Afridi.

A strange thing happened to Vusi Sibanda when he stopped wearing glasses – he could see. Alright, it wasn’t exactly that dramatic, because Sibanda switched to contact lenses instead, but the change resulted in improved vision and, in turn, better form with the bat.The three years between 2008 and 2010 were particularly blurry for Sibanda. He failed to average over 20 in ODIs in any of them, a disappointing effort after the previous two years, where he maintained healthy one-day averages of over 35. Since the start of 2011 though his form has improved remarkably: he averages 44.00 in ODIs this year, and will be one of Zimbabwe’s key players during the upcoming series against Pakistan that starts with a solitary Test on September 1 and will feature three ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals thereafter.Two days before he got called up to Zimbabwe’s World Cup squad, Sibanda made a bold decision to aid his game. “We [Mashonaland Eagles] were playing a four-day game here in Bulawayo against Matabeleland Tuskers and I had to excuse myself to go to the optometrist,” Sibanda told ESPNcricnfo. “I had the tests done, got the lenses and came back to continue playing. I was quite nervous and had to stand outside the 30-yard circle while I got used to them.”The change had an immediate impact. “It became easier to pick the line and length of deliveries and I seemed to have a lot more time than I used to have.” Also, not having to wear glasses made Sibanda more comfortable at the crease. “It sounds a bit weird, but the glasses would start falling off because of the sweat and it would get annoying because I had to keep putting them back on.”The switch to lenses, that he had delayed for years because he did not like the idea of putting something in his eyes, was just the first of several adjustments Sibanda made to his game. Since 2008, Sibanda has spent a few weeks a year in Sydney with Michael Clarke’s mentor Neil D’Costa, where they have worked intensively on a few key areas.”I used to shuffle a lot in the crease and now I don’t have that trigger movement anymore,” Sibanda said. “With a more solid stance I can react faster.” He still is rushed into a shot sometimes though, particularly by the short ball, and calls himself a “compulsive puller.” The shot cost him his wicket four times in the series against Bangladesh. Sibanda dealt well with Bangladesh’s spinners on his way to three half-centuries in the series – one in the Tests, two in the ODIs. Still, he maintains that it is the quicks that he prefers to face. “I’ve always liked pace; spin used to be a bit of a problem for me.”The Bulawayo pitch, where the Test against Pakistan will be played, usually offers the spinners something. Sibanda, though, said he saw a fair bit of grass on the strip when he went to observe it. Even if it does turn, Sibanda’s recent form has made him confident he can deal with any conditions.

ScorecardJoe Denly missed out on a maiden double century by one run as Kent fought backagainst Derbyshire to set up an intriguing final day to the CountyChampionship match at Derby.Denly’s 199 in 415 minutes saved the visitors from following on despite anotherfive-wicket haul from paceman Tony Palladino, who bagged his 50th championshipvictim of the summer. Azhar Mahmood also contributed 97 as Kent were dismissed for 419 to trail Derbyshire by 116, before David Balcombe grabbed three quick wickets to reducethe hosts to 29 for 4.Wayne Madsen’s first championship half-century since May eventually sawDerbyshire to 181 all out in their second innings, and left Kent needing 298 forvictory. They lost nightwatchman Adam Riley before stumps to close on 0 for one.Kent went into the third morning trailing by 256, but Denly and Mahmood tooktheir fifth-wicket stand to 151 in 39 overs before Derbyshire broke through withthe second new ball.Mahmood was in sight of his first century for three years when he fell acrossthe crease at Palladino and was lbw, but he had played a big part in keeping histeam in the game. Palladino celebrated his 50th wicket when he knocked Geraint Jones’ off-stump out with Kent still 24 away from the follow-on of 386, but Denly took them pastthat target just before lunch.The opener had played with authority since he was dropped behind on 33 theprevious day and a double hundred looked his for the taking when he tried tosteer Mark Footitt to backward point and was caught at first slip.Denly had batted for six minutes short of seven hours and, although Palladinostruck again to finish with five for 84, an injury depleted Kent team had shownreal character to fight back. Derbyshire still had a healthy lead but Balcombe made sure the momentum stayed with Kent by taking a wicket in each of his first three overs.Matt Lineker was caught behind carving, Paul Borrington edged a drive to gullyand first-innings centurion Wes Durston was snared low down at first slip togive Balcombe figures of three for seven in 14 balls. Matt Coles then had Dan Redfern caught at third slip but Madsen played his first major innings in the competition since scoring a century and a fifty against Kent at Canterbury to keep the game in the balance.Madsen shared half-century stands with Ross Whiteley and Tim Groenewald beforehe was caught behind cutting at Darren Stevens, who polished off the inningswith a burst of three for two in six balls. After a rain delay of 48 minutes, the umpires took the players out for one over at 6.30pm and Riley survived one ball before Palladino had him caught behind down the legside.

Afghanistan Under-19s won a pulsating encounter against Namibia Under-19s by one wicket at the Limavady Cricket Club. Afghanistan chose to field, but could not get an early wicket as the Namibia openers added 49 runs at a steady clip. Thereafter, the Afghan bowlers gradually pulled things back through an incisive spell from Javed Ahmadi that yielded 4 for 35. Merwe Erasmus hit a half-century to lift the score to 208 for 9. Afghanistan’s chase struggled to stay afloat as wickets went down every time a partnership seemed to be developing. They seemed down and out at 106 for 6, but Nasir Ahmadzai had other ideas. He battled with the tail and hauled them over the line off the penultimate ball of the chase, after the No. 10 batsman was run out off the previous delivery.Ahmadzai, who was declared the Man of the Match, said he was “always confident” of reaching the target. “I just kept telling the new batsmen to give me support. We just had to knock a few singles around to get to the target,” he said. “I was in a similar situation few months ago, but then I got out early. But this time I managed to keep my cool and reach the target.”Canada Under-19s edged past Nepal Under-19s in an attritional thriller at the Bready Cricket Club. Bowlers ruled the roost in a game where only 213 runs were scored in 91.1 overs. Kesavan Juvarajan and Trevor Manoosingh scalped three wickets apiece as Nepal cobbled together a score of 106, with extras – 24 – the highest contribution to the total. The Nepal bowlers were almost as generous, conceding 19 extras in the chase, but Canada owed their victory to Kyle Edghill’s dour unbeaten 52 off 133 balls. Seven wickets fell and no other batsman managed to get past 17, but Edghill ensured he saw his side home in the 49th over.Ireland Under-19s blew Vanuatu Under-19s away by 165 runs at Lodge Road, to move to the top of the points table. Andy McBrine slammed 107 off 104 balls to propel Ireland to 313 for 9, before coming back to pick up two wickets in an efficient Ireland bowling performance. Nalin Nipiko resisted with 62, but the game as a contest was over long before he became the seventh wicket to fall in the chase. Man-of-the-Match McBrine said the the would do “wonders” for the squad. “We finally won comfortably,” he said. “This will send out a strong message to the rest of the field.”A mind-boggling tenth-wicket stand of 67 in 65 balls lifted Papua New Guinea Under-19s to 204 for 9, a total they managed to defend easily against Kenya Under-19s at New Strabane Park, to register their second win in five games. Few would have expected PNG to recover from 137 for 9, but No. 9 Toua Tom chanced his arm to haul his team out of trouble. He smashed four fours and as many sixes in 82 off 86 balls, while last man Alei Nao hung on gamely for 7 off 33. Buoyed by their resurgence, PNG came out with vigour and skittled Kenya for 138, ironically one run more than PNG had on the board when the ninth wicket fell.Scotland Under-19s joined Ireland at the top of the table with their fourth win in five matches, crushing USA Under-19s by eight wickets in Woodvale Road. USA had progressed to a reasonable 102 for 3 after choosing to bat, but then had no answer to Scotland’s offspinning pair of Kyle Smith and Ross McLean. In the 24th over, Smith removed the set batsmen, Greg Sewdialand Abhijit Joshi, off successive deliveries. None of the batsmen who followed made it to double digits as the final seven wickets went down for 22 runs. Chasing a straightforward 125, Scotland lost their openers early but an unbeaten 60 from No. 3 Freddie Coleman and 40 from Peter Ross took them to a comfortable victory in the 29th over. Smith, who was named Man of the Match, said, “today was our best all-round performance in the tournament. We are getting into the groove now.”

Scorecard
Yorkshire’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals were virtually extinguished at Headingley as they went down by six wickets to North Group leaders Nottinghamshire.The only bright moment for Yorkshire came when 26-year-old debutant fast bowler, Iain Wardlaw, gave them brief hope by getting rid of Riki Wessels and Tamim Iqbal in the space of four balls after the second wicket pair had rattled up 61 together in seven overs as Notts chased a modest 153 target on a good pitch.Wardlaw, who plays for Bradford League club Cleckheaton, was recommended to Yorkshire by skipper Andrew Gale, and he was a late replacement for Ryan Sidebottom who was suffering from a stomach bug.He gained his maiden wicket when Wessels skied him to Adam Lyth at deep mid-off after striking 27 from 20 balls with two fours and a six and in the same over he had opener Iqbal also held by Lyth, this time on the long-on boundary, for 47 from 37 deliveries with five fours and two sixes.Before Wardlaw’s double strike, Notts had already been given an encouraging start by Iqbal and Alex Hales who added 41 in six overs before Hales was caught at cover point by Anthony McGrath off Richard Pyrah.Adam Voges was bowled reverse sweeping at Azeem Rafiq to leave Notts on 105 for four but Chris Read and Scott Elstone knocked off the remaining runs with little trouble, Reed virtually settling the issue by blasting Pyrah for consecutive mid-wicket sixes to finish unbeaten on 26 from 15 balls while Elstone also faced the same number of balls for his 21 not out.Once again, Yorkshire had their captain to thank for holding the innings together, Gale making 62 off 55 balls with five fours and a six before Jonny Bairstow upped the tempo later on with a four and three sixes in his unbeaten 41 from 26 deliveries.It was Gale’s fourth half-century of the season in the competition and he remains the only batsman in his side to have reached the 50 mark.Winning the toss, Yorkshire lost a wicket in the second over when Joe Sayers was brilliantly caught left-handed by the diving Wessels at short extra cover but early runs still came at a healthy rate as Lyth took consecutive boundaries off Andre Adams and Gale smacked Darren Pattinson for two fours and a six, the seamer going for 45 off three overs.Yorkshire’s good work in front of a 4,904 crowd was quickly undone as both Lyth and Gary Ballance were run out and the out-of-form, McGrath, recalled to the side at the expense of Joe Root, edged an intended cut at Graeme White into Read’s gloves.Both Lyth and Bairstow were made to work hard for their runs and Bairstow’s boundary off Voges was the first to be added in nine overs. Gale completed his 50 off 47 balls but the end came when he scooped Adams round the corner and into the waiting hands of Luke Fletcher.Bairstow began to hit out and he drove Pattinson for two towering sixes but he enjoyed a life in the same over when Steven Mullaney caught him on the boundary edge off a no-ball. Ajmal Shahzad also weighed in with 15 from ten balls but Yorkshire still finished short of a really competitive total.

The start of England’s new four-year cycle begins in earnest on Tuesday morning, when the selectors unveil their first one-day squad since the end of the 2011 World Cup. With Alastair Cook inked in as captain in the wake of Andrew Strauss’s retirement, and Stuart Broad set to lead his country for the first time in the one-off Twenty20 at Bristol next weekend, the coming fortnight represents the first step on the journey towards the 2015 World Cup in Australasia.With that in mind, the squad announcement, scheduled for 9.00am, promises to be notable for its absentees every bit as much as its new inclusions. Paul Collingwood, who retired from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes in a bid to press on as a limited-overs specialist, is likely to find himself shunted into the sidelines at the age of 35. James Anderson and Matt Prior are also in danger of missing out, while Samit Patel, he of the unsuitably wide waistline, might finally have done enough gym-work to convince the selectors that he has the right sort of hunger to thrive at the top level.Collingwood has recently returned from a two-month break following knee surgery, an operation which he said has put a new spring back into his step. But despite his undeniable value to the team as an elder statesman, canny medium-pacer and lightning sharp fielder in the gully, the extent to which his runs dried up in the winter was alarming. He managed 83 in five Ashes Tests, and a further 114 in eight sporadic ODI appearances, and by the time of England’s World Cup quarter-final elimination by Sri Lanka, he was no longer a member of their first-choice team.With an England record 197 ODIs to his name, and 300 international appearances all told, Collingwood himself knows he might struggle to build on that figure. “When you get older there’s a lot more pressure,” he told The Cricketer magazine. “People start looking at your age. You have to be fitter than you’ve ever been because you can’t give them an excuse to ignore you. But I feel fit, I feel sharp, all the desire is there, so I just need to score the runs that demand attention.”The cases of Prior and Anderson are slightly different. In Test cricket both men remain central planks of England’s strategy, but their performances in the World Cup paled compared to their effectiveness in Australia before Christmas. Anderson in particular looked jaded after his exertions in the Ashes, as he claimed four wickets in five matches at 70.50, and was battered around the subcontinent at more than a run a ball.With Tim Bresnan returning to fitness after an injury-plagued start to the season, and with young thrusters such as Jade Dernbach and Chris Woakes eager to build on the progress they made in the winter, the temptation may be to leave Anderson on the sidelines, especially given how integral to England’s fortunes he is sure to be when India arrive next month for their Test series.Prior, meanwhile, is under pressure for his place from Somerset’s Craig Kieswetter, who burst to prominence during England’s World Twenty20 victory in the Caribbean last May, but was found out by the moving ball during his subsequent ODI appearances. In his absence the wicketkeeping gloves were passed first to Steve Davies, and then back to Prior, when it became clear that England missed his energy and expertise behind the stumps. However, with the bat, he has consistently struggled to reproduce the free-flowing form that has marked his Test career, and Kieswetter’s ability to clear the in-field in the Powerplay overs is an asset worth revisiting.The most notable recall could well be Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel, a punishing middle-order batsman and handy spinning allrounder, whom England had been desperate to call upon for the World Cup. However, his persistent failure to meet England’s exacting fitness standards told against him, and it is only now, after a feisty start to the county season, that he is beginning to inch back to favour.One slight concern for England going into the limited-overs series is the fitness of Broad, who had to leave the field for treatment on the final day of the Sri Lanka Test at the Rose Bowl. He has sustained a bruised right heel, although Strauss said he was expected to be fit to lead his new team in the Bristol Twenty20.”It’s a niggle rather than anything serious,” said Strauss. “He will have to rest up over the next few days, because we’ve always got to look after our bowling resources. But it will be the same situation as anything else – if he’s fit enough to play then he’ll play.I don’t think there’s any real reason to doubt that he won’t be fit.”Possible ODI squad Alastair Cook (capt), Craig Kieswetter (wk), Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, Chris Woakes, Jade Dernbach